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Positive Addiction
Addiction to drugs, alcohol, food, smoking, etc. are instances of powerful motivation, but they sap our strength and zest for doing our best. It is believed there are other addictive activities that give us strength: jogging, meditating, writing a diary, exercising, relaxing, and so on. These are called positive addictions, focusing on the emotions underlying our behavior.
First, we all want to be loved and to feel worthwhile. When we don't get what we want, we either have the strength to try again or we don't. Thousands of us give up by saying, "Why try? I'd just fail" or "It's my parents' fault" or some other similar rationalization.
When giving up and giving excuses don't remove the pain (of not achieving love or worth), we may turn to psychiatric symptoms, such as depression, rebelling, going crazy, psychosomatic complaints, or addiction to drugs, alcohol, or food. Painful as these conditions are, they are less painful than facing the fact that we have failed and given up on obtaining love and self-worth. So, they are another self-con--they make it easier to give up and, at the same time, get some sympathy.
What is the solution? Positive addictions. It isn't an easy solution, nor is it for everybody. It takes six months to a year of activity (jogging, meditating, etc.) one hour every day to develop a strength-giving addiction. The activity must usually be done alone, with no demands or striving for excellence or self-criticism. There are thousands of joggers, bikers, meditators, relaxers, journal writers, exercisers, and other users of positive addictions who claim great benefits. They claim to get more results than just feeling better and getting pleasure; they claim greater self-confidence, more energy, better imagination and ideas, more frustration tolerance and so on.
It is an interesting, indirect approach which does not concentrate on dedication to your major life goals. Committing an hour a day directly to loving someone or to studying could have powerful effects too. If we were in such a position, we might first try to build a real interest and motivation in my studies. There are too many good joggers who are poor students to confidently believe that jogging will make you an "A" student. More research, not more testimonials, is needed to evaluate the effects of positive addictions and to investigate which positive addictions work best with what kind of people and with what problems. But .... it is an idea!
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